In California: A pandemic declared; DEA agents try to take down violent drug cartel
The coronavirus is officially a pandemic as the U.S. death toll rises to 31 — four of them in California. And early morning DEA raids across the country lead to the arrest of 250 people, including one in Los Angeles, believed to be linked to a powerful Mexican drug cartel.
It's Arlene Martínez with news for Wednesday.
But first, what are you doing to maintain peace in this stressful time? Let me know, and I'll share your tips and suggestions here. I, for one, would love to hear them.
In California handpicks the most relevant, useful stories from across USA TODAY Network newsrooms and beyond. Sign up for free, weekday delivery.
Trumps plans coronavirus address as pandemic is declared
President Trump planned to address the nation around 6 p.m. PST on Wednesday, the day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 175 confirmed cases and four deaths in California (See all cases mapped here). Across the country, the death toll reached over 20 and confirmed cases exceeded 1,100.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the pandemic as the global death toll rose above 4,500 and the number of confirmed cases neared 125,000.
"We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear," Tedros said at a news conference. "We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: All countries can still change the course of this pandemic."
Cruise ships will make their way home. How will they be greeted?
Dozens of cruise ships are poised to enter U.S. cities as some port authorities, including those in Monterey and Santa Barbara, close their docks to large passenger ships.
At least 30 cruise ships at sea list port destinations in the USA this week, according to a USA TODAY satellite tracking analysis of 380 of the world’s largest cruise ships. Data from real-time vessel monitoring systems was merged with passenger and crew capacities to produce the snapshot.
That means upward of 100,000 people – 70% of them passengers – could look to come ashore at a range of U.S. ports, based on the average capacity of the ships from cruisemapper.com.
The prospect of potential virus carriers unknowingly wandering port cities worries civic leaders.
Cruise ships have come under particular scrutiny because their close quarters provide a perfect petri dish environment for a virus. And even as their return seems unclear — who owns port access is simple and complex, USA Today reporters learned — that isn't stopping some from exploring the seven seas.
More coronavirus headlines:
First-generation and low-income students face additional challenges on closed campuses. Some may not have the internet at home; others depend on their colleges for food, housing and overall stability.
Starbucks and other stores are suspending the use of personal, brought-from-home cups. What does that mean for the zero-waste movement, and are pre-packaged goods actually safer?
Don’t touch my pen: What it’s like being a server in Newport Beach during COVID-19.
Kaiser Permanente in the Bay Area begins drive-thru coronavirus testing.
Also, a definition (and here's how it differs from an endemic, outbreak and epidemic):
Pandemic: A global outbreak of a serious new illness seeing sustained transmission throughout the world. It's largely an indication of how widespread COVID-19 is rather than how lethal it is.
A difficult thing about coronavirus is knowing just how many people have it, which would allow for a more accurate determination on the fatality rate. One study put it at 1.6% based on an assumption of undercounting.
Weinstein's rambling remarks; affirmative action; $43M police payout
Harvey Weinstein speaks, before being sentenced to 23 years for sex crimes: “I’m confused, and I think men are confused. I think about the thousands of men and women who are losing due process, and I’m worried about this country.”
Lawmakers and civil rights groups say they will try to repeal Prop. 209, which in 1996 banned the consideration of race and gender in admissions criteria, hiring and procurement decisions. “Trump and his white supremacist friends have shown very clearly that racism and discrimination is very much alive and well,” said Eva Paterson, a civil rights attorney and president of the nonprofit Equal Justice Society in Oakland.
Santa Monica will pay $42.6 million to settle child sexual abuse claims against a Police Activities League volunteer who also worked for the city's police department. Records show complaints and concerns about Eric Uller were ignored for years.
Dismantling a ruthless drug cartel to get to its leader, El Mencho
DEA agents fanned out across the country early Wednesday, arresting 250 people as part of an all-out effort to stop a violent drug cartel that controls up to two-thirds of the U.S. drug market.
A Los Angeles area man was among those arrested — the Drug Enforcement Administration alleges he acts as a stash house manager for the Mexican Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, known as CJNG.
The DEA hopes the arrests help dismantle the upper ranks of the cartel and eventually lead them to Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, a man so wanted there's a $10 million reward for his arrest. Overall, "Project Python," of which Wednesday's effort was a part, has netted 750 total arrests and seizures of $20 million.
The Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, took a deep dive into the billion-dollar criminal organization last year after learning its wide-reaching operation was supplying drugs likely used by people who died taking them.
I talked to Courier Journal reporter Jonathan Bullington in December about one of the stories in that series, focused on a Los Angeles man who disappeared after agreeing to do a drug delivery. He didn't know it was for CJNG. Here's that conversation.
A break, for the soul
So ... is the goop lab any good? And other Netflix stuff.
LA author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez explores what would happen if Stephen King were treated like a Latina writer.
We can't just be talking about the coronavirus, right? So here are some ice breakers to make you a hit at any party. Like this one: "Have any vacations coming up?" No wait, that one won't work. But there are others.
Illegal boarding homes pose serious threats to tenants
But the alternative for some low-wage, unskilled immigrants in the San Gabriel Valley is homelessness. Local housing officials often know the problems inside, hundreds of complaints alert them to the fact, but enforcement is sporadic and fines are so low they're essentially meaningless.
Those are findings from a new LAist investigation, the second installment in a new series, "STUCK: Inside California’s Housing Crisis."
LAist spent months pouring through housing and code enforcement records and interviewed dozens of people to, in the words of lead reporter Yingjie Wang, "get a better understanding of how tenants are living, who is benefitting from their living conditions and why substandard conditions persist despite vows by city leaders to crack down."
The homes had rats, roaches, faulty wiring, missing smoke detectors, and as many as 13 people living in small, two-bedroom units. One of the problematic buildings is connected to a well-known real estate company. There's more on that, plus four other key takeaways here.
In California is a roundup of news from across USA TODAY Network newsrooms. Also contributing: Long Beach Post, LAist, The Harvard Crimson, Grist, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Clog.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Drug cartel, pandemic, coronavirus, Prop. 209, Weinstein: Wed news
